What are you listening 2 now?

[VonStupp]

Benjamin Britten
Paul Bunyan

James Lawless as Paul Bunyan
Pop Wagner as Narrator
Dan Dressen as Johnny Inkslinger
Elisabeth Comeaux Nelson as Tiny
Plymouth Music Series - Philip Brunelle

Well, I gave Britten's operetta a shot. It is certainly lighter than what I know Britten for, both music and plot, where there are some delightful humorous setups, particularly in Act I. The story get a little heavier in Act II, and Paul Bunyan pontificates a fair bit too much at the end.

The Minnesota chorus and orchestra are wonderfully prepared by Philip Brunelle, though. While the title character never sings or appears on stage, here he receives a booming voice of authority, but I don't think we ever hear from Babe the Blue Ox. Cowboy poet Pop Wagner's shtick in Britten's Three Ballads is akin to the singing Rooster narrator in Disney's Robin Hood (1973).

VS




My wife thought Paul Bunyan was dead on the cover art, but W.H. Auden's libretto provides the answer:

One night he dreamt he was to be
The greatest logger in history.
He woke to feel something stroking his brow
And found it was the tongue of an enormous cow.

[ritter]

Franz Liszt
Via Crucis

Reinbert de Leeuw & Collegium Vocale Gent

Good idea, Ilaria!

Joining you with the same work, but in Reinbert de Leuuw's earlier recording on Philips (from 1984).

[Linz]

Bach St. Johns Passion  Collegeum Vocale, La Cahapelle Royale, Philippe Hereweghe

[foxandpeng]

I am sure of it my friend! My last prayer was that we both would get at least 150 years extra on earth, so plenty opportunities to absorb Brian at any given time.      

Perhaps that would give me enough time to do all the reading I have planned 😅

Or catch up on all that lute music 😲

[André]

A cello concerto (the Dreamsongs of the cover), a viola concerto and a concerto grosso. This is Kernis in extraverted mood. Very fine performances and sound.

[T. D.]

[Symphonic Addict]

Boris Parsadanian: Symphonies 1 and 2

I had to wait too long to find out how outstanding these works are. A tragic mood permeates both symphonies and it's more felt in the first one. I didn't hear anything by Glière in these pieces as other member stated. It's Shostakovich without the irony and a bit of Khachaturian the apparent similarities I perceived. Impressive pieces. There's purpose and poignancy that make them especially valuable.

[T. D.]

[André]

Boris Parsadanian: Symphonies 1 and 2

I had to wait too long to find out how outstanding these works are. A tragic mood permeates both symphonies and it's more felt in the first one. I didn't hear anything by Glière in these pieces as other member stated. It's Shostakovich without the irony and a bit of Khachaturian the apparent similarities I perceived. Impressive pieces. There's purpose and poignancy that make them especially valuable.

An impressive pair of works indeed.

[Mapman]

Bach: St. Matthew Passion
Scherchen

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

Continuing on with the Alwyn symphonies --- now playing Symphony No. 1



Such a deeply rewarding symphonic cycle. This is perhaps my third or fourth time going through these symphonies within the last 15 years. The music gets better and better with each successive listen.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

I agree about Previn - I prefer his Sea Symphony too because he has John Shirely-Quirk who for me is the sound of British vocal music!  Re the Variations - I think they are a tremendous piece but need to be heard played by a proper brass band - the timbre and collective sound is so different from an orchestral brass group.  Brabbins recorded it with the Tredegar band. Here is that band playing the work at the 2022 Proms;

Good point about hearing a proper brass band. The brass band in the video you linked sounded quite good I must say. Such a fine piece. Thanks for sharing!

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

Now playing Vaughan Williams Flos campi



Is it a concerto? Is it a choral work? Is it a hybrid of the two? Perhaps! Whatever Flos campi is categorized as, it's absolutely gorgeous and a work that is always a pleasure to revisit.

[AnotherSpin]

An impressive pair of works indeed.

To appreciate the historical backdrop:

The episode of the 26 Baku Commissars took place amid the turbulent aftermath of the First World War, during the throes of the Russian Civil War, in a region of considerable strategic and economic consequence, owing chiefly to its abundant oil reserves. The Baku Commune, a short-lived Bolshevik administration under the leadership of Stepan Shahumyan, was toppled in July 1918 by a coalition of anti-Bolshevik factions. With Ottoman forces pressing forward, the British found cause to intervene, seeking to prevent the prized oil fields from falling into German or Ottoman hands, and to curtail the spread of Bolshevik influence in the region.

Curiously, only two of the Commissars were Azerbaijani by origin, despite the fact that these events transpired in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, a land that had only recently shaken off the yoke of the Russian Empire in the wake of the Bolshevik coup in St. Petersburg. The committee's chairman, Shahumyan, like the majority of his colleagues, was of Armenian descent — a detail not lost on those even modestly acquainted with the region's intricate and often fraught history, extending well into recent decades. After several rather bewildering twists of plot — worthy, perhaps, of an operetta or a middling action film — the Commissars were executed (as later emerged, beheaded) in Turkmenistan, on the orders of their own comrades.

The episode of the 26 Baku Commissars would go on to achieve near-mythical status in Soviet lore, serving as a favoured subject of propaganda. It was, perhaps inevitably, immortalised in music, cinema, literature, and beyond. Yet, more recent scholarly scrutiny has revealed that the official narrative was, to a large extent, a carefully curated fiction, if not a wholesale distortion of the truth.

[Que]

As already mentioned on the Lamentations thread, another Italian Lamentazioni:



http://www.musica-dei-donum.org/cd_reviews/Glossa_GCD921205.html

[Irons]

They look nice! Too bad they are not available in digital or cd format.

A subsidiary of EMI, Music for Pleasure, re-released during the 1960's many back-catalogue mono recordings. Mostly featuring the Philharmonia in their pomp but not exclusively, the best performance I have heard of Rach2.

[Traverso]

Bach

[Florestan]

The most beautiful and moving SM ever penned, perfectly balanced between intimate feelings and their theatrical expression. This version is outstanding.

[Que]

[Harry]

New release.

An English Pastoral.
Gurney · Finzi · Venables · Bliss.
See back cover for details.
CHU-YU YANG, Violin & ERIC McELROY, Piano.
Recording: St Mark's Church, St Marylebone, London, 13 & 14 April 2024.

This is a lovely CD, with some unknown composers for me like Venables, what a deeply pastoral piece he wrote, and Gurney of which I practically heard nothing, apart from a few tiny compositions far in my past. I love the title of this CD and the meaning it has for me. It is well recorded and played.


Award-winning Taiwanese violinist Joe Chu-Yu Yang is a passionate advocate of British music and founder of the British Music Festival in Taiwan.